Civil Servants urged to remain neutral

The Head of Civil Service, Nana Kwabena Agyekum Dwamena, has called on Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOSSAG) members to remain neutral and professional in all their dealings to ensure peace, efficiency and productivity.

He said it was a fact that the government machinery cannot work effectively without their services and that their work cannot be over-emphasized.

He said the civil service was poised to work hard with any government in power to move the nation forward and enhance the image of the service.

“Next year will be used to educate the public on who we are, what we do and what we stand for, to distinguish ourselves from the others and to tell the public that not all workers are civil servants,” Nana Agyekum Dwamena stated in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The statement signed by Mr. Isaac Bampoe Addo, Executive Secretary of CLOSSAG to mark May Day and acknowledged eight activists of the service who had distinguished themselves.

The distinguished activists were awarded certificates, laptops and mobile phones while Mr. Charles Nelson the best activist of the service was given a table top fridge in addition to a laptop and mobile phone.

Mr. Bampoe Addo expressed reservation about undue politicization of the service which according to the association was a contributing factor in the downturn of the economy.

“The menace of politicization stems from the fact that it hits at human rights and denies sections of society the opportunity to participate fully in national development," the statement stated.

The statement said politicization manifested itself within the civil and local government service in diverse ways and affects the effectiveness and productivity of the worker.

It said instead of the government giving opportunity to all staff based on experience and technical competence, it rather tends to be choosy and mostly relied on political followers and those who paid lip service to the government.

“In this, wise continuity is missed and institutional memory is lost within the services”.

These acts of politicization, he said, were not in tune with the 1992 constitution adding that, after elections, the party in power should realize that government is for all and not party followers.

The statement said CLOSSAG was enjoined to remain politically neutral and that any members who publicly associated themselves publicly with a political party would be expelled from the service.

This is to ensure that staff are not ignored but are given room to participate in the activities at the work place and curtail the power of politicians who arrogate to themselves the power to assign positions, transfers, suspension and in some cases dismissals without recourse to lay down procedures and norms.

Political interference is grinding the government machinery to a halt as both central and local levels are not being properly fuelled to support the economy, whereas resources are channeled to newly created institutions that are mere replication.

“We expect that every worker would be given the opportunity to contribute their quota to achieve the objects of the services without any hindrances,” he stated.